Hey, Evans, Wanna Go Out With Me?
by emuroo
Summary: What was the beginning of first year like for Lily Evans and James Potter? When James' attempt to ask her out on their first night ends with him dripping in pumpkin juice will he give up? The start of their first year. Complete. Very slightly AU since DH.
1. THE First Time

Disclaimer: Not mine. It's that simple.

The First Time

All of the first years were standing in a line waiting to be sorted. James Potter was in the line like all the others, but he wasn't paying as much attention to the sorting. He was watching a red headed girl he had met on the train. He had learned that her name was Lily Evans, and that he liked her. A lot. Unfortunately he ad also discovered that she didn't like him.

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He remembered how it had happened so clearly. He had walked into her compartment on the train to find a boy whose name he had afterwards learned was Severus Snape calling a redhead names like mudblood. He had of course taken immediate action, putting Snape, or Snivellus as he had dubbed the other boy in a leg bind. He then looked up and his hazel eyes met the amazingly beautiful green pools that the redhead had in place of eyes. At the moment their eyes met it was as though he had a sudden understanding of the girl's soul. In that second he knew he had found the girl he would love forever. He could have stood there forever staring into her eyes.

The girl however had other ideas. She cried angrily "why did you do that?!! He did nothing at all to you did he?" James was still staring and the girl clearly did NOT appreciate his attention. She angrily told him "stop staring at me" when he did not respond to her words she screamed "FIRST YOU HAD BETTER STOP STARING AT ME, THEN YOU CAN TAKE THE SPELL OF THIS BOY BECAUSE HE DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING."

That caught his attention and he stopped staring at the girl's eyes. He looked at her in surprise and yelped, "Didn't do anything! What do you mean? He called you a-a-a. The M word!"

"You mean mudblood? Is that a bad word? I've never even heard it before. So what! I don't care if he calls me names. That's no reason to hurt him. It makes you as bad as him! Any way what does mudblood mean?

James stared at her in consternation. She had just said mudblood not once, but twice. It was a word his parents had told him he should never, ever, say. She was clearly muggleborn and he should explain what it meant. "That word is something some pureblood wizards call muggleborns. It means dirty blood and it's a really bad insult. Only wizards who think that they are better because of their blood use it. I won't take the spell off of him because he shouldn't have called you that! Your blood doesn't matter! There are plenty of purebloods that don't care about blood. I'm one of them." He explained and proudly puffed out his chest, expecting her to be impressed.

Unfortunately for him, she wasn't. She said, "As happy as I am that you aren't going to call me a mudblood, you still shouldn't have done that. If you won't take it off of him, then I will!" with that she lifted the spell and looked up at him as if surprised that James was still there. "Well? Why are you still here?"

James started, realizing that he'd been staring again. "I wanted to know what your name was. I'm James Potter, pureblood." He was nervous as he said it. He already liked this girl a lot, and she appeared to have the temper that redheads were so famous for. And he thought miserably, _She hates me._

"You want to know my name?" The girl was clearly amused, and for a moment James was afraid that she wouldn't tell him. He _had_ to know. But then she said "Lily Evans, muggleborn, as you obviously guessed. Good bye Potter."

James left in a daze wondering if the beautiful girl would be in his house. Soon afterwards he had met another first year. His name was Sirius Black, and he and James hit it off instantly. When James told him about the girl, little did Sirius know that it would be the first of many rants about Lily Evans.

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"Black, Sirius." McGonagall calling out the name of his new best friend brought James back to reality. He tore his eyes from Evans to watch his friend. He knew how nervous his friend was that he'd be sorted into Slytherin like the rest of his family. James watched with bated breath as Sirius sat on the stool with the hat on his head. He waited for the hat to call out which house his friend would be in. Then "GRYFFINDOR" screamed the hat. James applauded loudly along with the Gryffindor table. Once Sirius was seated James's eyes went back to watching the Redheaded Lily Evans.

When Lily was sorted into Gryffindor James was elated. He was sure he'd be in that house, after all, both of his parents had been. James zoned out again after the Lily Evans was sorted. He thought to himself that Lily Evans was a beautiful name.

When James was called up to be sorted the hat cried "GRYFFINDOR" mere instants after touching his head. He immediately went to sit with Sirius and they started talking.

Now, you must understand that James was interested in things other than Lily at Hogwarts; the lovely, perfect, amazing spectacular girl had simply surprised him. He was also excited by the prospect of pranking and exploring and learning magic. He knew that he and Sirius would be the most amazing pranksters in Hogwarts history.

Knowing this it is no surprise that their conversation soon turned to the first prank they would do. They were just deciding that Snivellus (James had shared the name with Sirius, who thought that it was hilarious) would be a perfect target when James felt a tap on his shoulder.

It was Lily. "You can't do that. He didn't do any thing to you! Why do you hate him so much? Just leave him alone." She said angrily. It was clear that she had heard their conversation.

"Well, he didn't do anything exactly, but he did call you a-a-a, well a you-know-what, and he's a Slytherin. He deserves what he gets," explained James with Sirius nodding his head vigorously all the while.

Judging by the look on Lily's face she didn't like his explanation. The words that came out of her mouth a moment later absolutely confirmed it. "You know what James Potter? You absolutely disgust me. You hardly even know the boy, but just because he used a word you don't like and is in Slytherin house you decide to prank him. And by what I heard that's a nasty prank!"

James almost thought he could see sparks flying from her eyes. He thought she looked very beautiful when she was angry. Then before he knew words were coming out of his mouth with out his consent "Evans, do you want to go out with me?" He asked. He knew it had been a mistake as soon as he looked into her spectacularly green eyes. If he had thought she looked angry before, now she was furious. Her eyes were filled with hatred and anger.

Lily pulled her new wand out of her robes and said in a low, dangerous voice "wingardium leviosa." James's pumpkin juice rose into the air. Moving her wand slowly and with great control Lily moved the cup so that it was above James's head. Then she let it drop. "That is your answer. I hope that your tiny brain can figure it out." She then walked over to sit with another first year Gryffindor, Alice.

James looked at Sirius and said, "So you think that was a no? Still looking on the bright side she remembered my name."

Sirius laughed. "I suppose she did remember your name, but I'd say that was a no. It sounds like she hates you!" he replied to his friend.

James looked over at Lily longingly then turned back to his friend and said, "now, about that prank."

**Author's note:** Did you like it? Yes, no? Please tell me. This is my first story, so please try to be nice, but honest.


	2. Fast Friends

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling writes Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Emuroo writes Fanfiction. See the difference? Good.

Dedication: To LCH8292 my first (and only) reviewer ever.

Lily's Complaint

First year Gryffindor girls' dorm

After yelling at Potter, Lily went to sit with her new friends Alice Davies and Marlene McKinnon. She had met them on the train after getting rid of Potter and the three girls had become fast friends. Alice was a slightly short blond girl with a round face and blue eyes, while Marlene was a tall, thin, brown-eyed brunette. She sat down and sighed. "What happened Lily? I didn't see the whole thing. All of a sudden you were yelling at James," asked Alice curiously. Marlene nodded in agreement.

Lily looked at her friends, who were both wearing curious expressions. "I'll tell you later in the dorms" she said quietly not wanting to attract any more attention than she already had by shouting at the stupid Potter. The girls went back to their meals, thinking of the fun they would have that night in the dorms and wondering whom the other girls in their room would be.

Within a few minutes Dumbledore stood and said "To our new students- Welcome, and to our old- Welcome back. I know that you all wish to go to your dorms, but before you do I have a few announcements. All students should note that the forbidden forest is, as its name implies, forbidden. Our caretaker, Mr. Filch, also asks me to remind you that there is to be no use of magic in the halls. Those students in second year and above wishing to join their house quidditch teams should speak to their heads of house. Now, all of you, off to bed. Toodles." The girls obediently followed the prefects to the common room and then found their dorms.

The dorm was amazing. When the girls entered they found that there were five four-poster beds with red and gold bedding. Their trunks were already by their beds, and the girls sat down on their respective beds to wait for the other girls, wondering who they would be, since they hadn't paid much attention to the sorting. A few minutes after they reached their room their other two roommates arrived. Their names were Emma and Emily Chambers. The girls were clearly identical twins. They both had light brown hair, and blue eyes. Within five minutes of meeting the five girls were friends sharing everything about their lives before Hogwarts.

Lily went first. "I'm muggleborn, so I was totally surprised when I woke up to find an owl tapping on my window." She giggled and continued, saying, "I like reading and I'm a good student. Well, at least in Muggle School I was, I don't know about with magic. Because I'm muggle born I know almost nothing about the wizarding world, so you guys are going to have to help me. I am obviously a redhead and I do have a temper, but I'm nice if you aren't annoying or stupid or mean like some of the other students I've met so far." The twins looked at her in confusion, but Alice and Marlene assumed that she meant James Potter.

"Ok" cried Marlene, her eyes shining with excitement. "My turn. I'm a half blood, my mom is a witch and my dad is a muggle. I went to a muggle primary school, because my parents thought it would be a good idea for me to learn about both worlds. I am so incredibly excited about coming to Hogwarts, and I can't wait to start classes tomorrow."

"I guess I'm next," said Alice smiling cheerfully. "I'm a pureblood, but I don't particularly care. I was home schooled before now. I love watching quidditch, but not playing it. Um, that's pretty much it, although I'm excited about finally learning to do magic."

Next it was the twins' turn. Emma spoke "well, obviously we're twins."

"I'd never have guessed," chorused the other three girls, and then all five started giggling, thinking how they were all thinking the same thing.

When the laughter had died down Emma continued. "Right, well I know it is hard to tell since we look exactly alike, but we really are twins. We're purebloods too, but like with Alice it is really not the foundation of our lives. Our parents named us Emma and Emily because they are crazy. Really, I mean why else would they have given us such similar names, as if it wasn't already hard enough to tell us apart! We can be noisy and goofy with people we know, but we are kinda shy at first, especially Emily. Oh yeah, we love quidditch and want to be on the team next year. I think my favorite subject is going to be Herbology." When the others looked at her twin Emma said, "she also likes Herbology, but thinks DADA will be her favorite."

"In case you haven't noticed, Emma talks way too much. She is right though that describes us pretty well, except she isn't really shy. That's mostly me."

"So I'm the only muggleborn here?" asked Lily forlornly.

"Don't worry about that! You'll be a pro at magic before you know it. You're probably going to be better than some purebloods." Said Alice. "Now tell us what happened with James Potter? You promised to tell us. How did you know his name? Did you meet him on the train?"

Lily told them the whole story, starting on the train, all the way up to the Great Hall incident. She concluded saying, "I mean, really, who was he kidding? I'm standing there glaring at him. What better time to ask me out? How stupid can you get? He was just so full of himself. Unfortunately I seriously doubt that I've seen the last of him. Or his friend. I don't know who the other boy was, but he seemed just as bad."

"No" said Emily slowly, "I don't suppose that you have. Or of his friend, who was Sirius Black. They are in our house after all. They're purebloods so I know James, but most of Sirius' family is dark so I don't know him that well. Actually, come to think of it, I'm rather surprised that he's in Gryffindor. A few years ago one of his cousins, Andromeda was too. But getting back to Potter. You're right. He does have a rather inflated view of himself. By which I mean he has an ego bigger than Asia. Still he may forget about you. Even if he has a crush on you it won't last. I mean, come on we're only eleven!" she said encouragingly.

Then Marlene said practically, "as fascinating as the history of the Black family and the discussion of Potter's love life are, we do have classes tomorrow, and I, for one, am exhausted. Good night." And with that she started to get into her pajamas. The other girls followed suit, and within ten minutes calls of "goodnight", "see you in the morning", and "have a good rest" echoed through the room. Lily fell asleep thinking that Potter had probably forgotten her by now. Oh, how wrong she was.

Authors note: I hope you like the new chapter the next one will be in the boys' dorm and we will meet Peter and Remus for the first time. Now, you see the button down in the corner of the page? Hit it and REVIEW! Please. It makes Emu so very happy when you review!

Emu


	3. The Forging of the Marauders

Disclaimer: I. Am. Not. J. K. Rowling. I. Do. Not. Own. Harry. Potter. Or. The Characters. In. The. Harry. Potter. Books.

The Forging of the Marauders

The Boys First Night

When Dumbledore finished speaking to the students the first years were led to their common rooms and dorms. James and Sirius walked slowly so that they would be at the back of the group of Gryffindor first years. They were whispering about their plans for pranks and so on. As a result they were the last ones to reach their rooms. When they arrived at their room they found that they had three other roommates. Their room had five four-poster beds in it, each with red and gold sheets and covers. There were boys on three of the beds.

On one was a boy of average height with light brown hair and blue eyes. He smiled at Sirius and James then said "I'm Frank Longbottom. I'm rather tired so I was just telling Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin here" as he said their names he nodded to the other two boys "that I was going to call it a night as soon as I met you two."

James replied cheerfully "ok, well we won't keep you. I'm James Potter, and this is Sirius Black." Upon seeing Frank's response to the name Black, James added, "he isn't like his family. For example, he's in Gryffindor not Slytherin."

James and Sirius then plopped down on their respective beds and looked at the other two. The boy who Frank said was named Remus was a tallish boy with light brown hair and unusual amber eyes. The other boy, Peter, was slightly chubby and short. He had blond hair of the sort that is almost colorless and looked a bit like a rat.

After a few minutes of silence James spontaneously decided that it was time to break the ice and said "let's go around and say something about ourselves. I'll go first. I am, as previously mentioned James Potter. I am a pureblood and it doesn't matter to me. I try to stop purebloods from teasing muggleborns when I can. I love playing quidditch and can't wait to try out next year. I also like to prank."

As the other boys went they learned that Sirius was a pureblood from a family that thought muggles and muggleborns should be removed from the face of the earth. They also learned that he thought his family was dead wrong. They would probably be unhappy that he wasn't in Slytherin. Remus was a half-blood (his mom was a pureblood and his dad was a muggle born) who enjoyed school and was excited about learning magic. Peter was a half-blood with a muggle mom and a wizard father and had nothing else to say. They discovered that all four boys liked pranking.

It was James who first suggested that they should make a pranking group with a name. The boys had already decided there should be a group when James announced, "we need a name."

"Ok" replied Sirius "how about the Pranksters? Or the Tricksters or Jokers."

"No" said James "those are so ridiculously predictable. Do you two have any ideas?" he asked turning to Remus and Peter.

"I do," said Remus. He was holding a dictionary and grinning. "James you said that Sirius's were too predictable, so I looked for a word that was more interesting. I found marauding. It means roving around attacking for plunder. That's not exactly what we plan to do, but it's close. We attack with pranks, and our plunder is laughter! So what about the Marauders?" he asked.

"THAT IS SO PERFECT!" shouted Sirius in excitement. Then he looked around guiltily to see if he had woken Frank.

He had. "Huh? What's going on?" asked Frank sleepily.

"Nothing, nothing. Just go back to sleep," said Remus hastily. To the newly named Marauders relief Frank did just that. They all breathed a sigh of relief. "Ok, that was close. Sirius, try to keep it down!"

"So, what's our first prank and who's it on?" asked James. 

"Well, we could get Snivellus" suggested Sirius. Seeing the looks of confusion on the faces of Peter and Remus Sirius explained "it's a name that James came up with for Severus Snape. He got mad at him for teasing a muggleborn girl on the train. Speaking of that, James, you should tell them about your encounters with the lovely Lily Evans." As he said the last part he grinned at James mischievously.

"What! But…" James stopped upon seeing the glint in Sirius' eyes. He already knew, despite the short length of their acquaintance, that it meant that he was going to be forced to tell. He gave in. "Well it all began when I caught Snivellus teasing Evans because she was a muggleborn." He told them the whole story from the bad start to dreadful finish. He concluded, "I don't know what made me say it. But you have to see her. She's so absolutely gorgeous. Her eyes are amazing, they-"

"Yes, yes James we know," said Sirius. Then turning to Remus and Peter he said, "I swear he could write a one hundred feet of parchment on why he loves the Evans chick! I heard most of it on the train." He rolled his eyes.

"I don't know what to do. That girl has to go out with me! How can I convince her to? What am I going to do?" cried James in despair.

"Well," said Peter, speaking for the first time since he'd shared his background, "you could work on your timing. You know just a little. Try dumping her into the lake first"

Remus agreed "yeah, or throwing mud at her, and since she likes it so much when you're mean to Snivellus, you could throw some at him too!"

"You think?" asked James, his face full of hope.

"Yeah" agreed Sirius, catching on, "totally, and I'd steal her diary too, then throw it in the lake, you know, just for good measure" Sirius had no idea if Lily had a diary, but he thought it would be interesting to see James' reaction to this addition. He was being careful to avoid eye contact with either Peter or Remus, because he knew that if he didn't, he would start laughing hysterically.

"I'd better get some parchment so that I can write all this down so that I don't forget."

At this the other three couldn't hold their laughter in anymore. They started rolling around on their beds laughing. James complained asking, "What is so funny about parchment?"

This made the other three laugh even more. The sound woke Frank, and he demanded to be let in on the joke. When Remus calmed down enough and filled him in on all that had happened while Frank was asleep (except the forging of the Marauders), Sirius, Peter, and Remus were sent into fresh gales of laughter. After watching this for a few minutes James said, "I still don't get it."

After the hilarity that this statement caused died down Remus said kindly "James, if you want Evans to go out with you those would be things not to do."

"Oh" was all that James said. Then in an attempt to cover up his mistake he said, "well anyhow what's our first prank going to be? Also, when and on whom?"

"James, I'd say that the first prank was on you, just now. If you want to discuss the second, well, that would be entirely different" said Remus grinning. "I'd like to suggest that we wait till next week, so that we can get to know the best ways to evade the teachers and the best people to pull it on."

The other boys agreed and within a few minutes they were all getting into bed and saying goodnight.

As they fell asleep none of the Marauders knew that they had just formed a friendship that would be one of the closest Hogwarts had ever seen. A friendship that would be broken only by betrayal and death. Or that they had just discussed the romance that would bring about the Boy Who Lived.

All that James Potter knew was that he spent his first night at Hogwarts dreaming of Lily Evans.

Author's Note: Can you guess what I'm going to say? Well I'm going to tell you anyway. Please review and tell me what you think! Also thanks to those who have added me to their favorites, or alerts.


	4. The First Day

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Girls Dorm 7:00 AM first day

"WAKE UP" screamed Lily and Emily in excitement. "It's time to get up! Come on we have to get to breakfast."

The response was less than encouraging. Alice groaned. Then she rolled over. Marlene got up. After going to her trunk to get her clothes she sat down on her bed. And promptly fell back asleep. Emma was least encouraging. She was clearly used to her sister doing this, because she did not respond at all.

The two girls who were up looked at each other. Then Lily said the word they were both thinking. "Pillows." Lily and Emma walked to their beds, which were equipped with several pillows. They each picked up a few then Lily said, "wait, there's a charm I read about for levitating them. It's _wingardium leviosa_ let's use that. The we can do all three at once!"

"Yes and you should get a wet washcloth. Drip it on their heads if they don't wake up." The two girls grinned at each other mischievously. Then they put their plan into action. Ten minutes later the dorm was filled with the sounds of laughter and pillows hitting each other. 

After the fight had died down the girls started getting ready for the day. They got dressed, washed their faces and so on. Then they went down to the great hall.

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Boys' Dorm 7:AM first day

Remus' wake up plan was simple. He dumped a cup of water on his friends. It was fast and simple, and with his knowledge of Hogwarts he was sure that the house elves would take care of the mess. Each boy responded differently to the water; Frank woke up before Remus dumped the water on him, apparently he was a light sleeper, Peter yelped in surprise and got up, Sirius instantly jumped out of bed and started running around the room, and then there was James. He rolled over. Remus looked down at his new friend thoughtfully, then turned to the other three and whispered, "let's jump on him."

The four boys crept stealthily around the room until they surrounded James' bed. Then they jumped. "Waz goin on? Geroff me!" Cried James.

"Rise and shine Jamesie" said Sirius cheerfully. "Face the beautiful new day. It is our first day of instruction at our wonderful new school, Hogwarts. Come on, I want to go get breakfast. I'm really hungry!"

"But I want to go back to bed," protested James. Seeing that Sirius was about to jump on him again he hurriedly amended his earlier statement "but you know what, breakfast sounds good too."

With that the boys got dressed and prepared to face their first day at Hogwarts.

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The Great Hall 8:00 AM

The girls were already sitting in the Great hall eating when James, Sirius, Peter, Remus, and Frank came down. The boys sat down a few seats away from Lily and her friends and loaded their plates with food. 

Emily looked over at them and to her disgust was met with the sight of five boys shoveling food into their mouths. "What is wrong with you? Are you pigs?" she exclaimed. 

This got the other girls' attention and they looked over too. "The food isn't going any where you know! Why on earth do you have to shove it into your mouths?" Asked Lily agreeing with her friend. "That is so incredibly disgusting."

"We're growing boys," responded Remus cheerfully. Then he returned to the important task of eating.

"Fine, whatever" Alice replied grouchily. She then turned to her friends and said "boys are so gross! It's kind of hard to believe that we're the same species as them." The other girls nodded in agreement and they all returned to their breakfasts.

A few minutes later McGonagall handed out schedules to the students. All of the first year Gryffindors had the same classes. Their first subject was Transfiguration with McGonagall. They would be taking this class with the Ravenclaws. Then they had Charms with Flitwick, lunch, Potions, and Defense Against the Dark Arts.

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The girls sat down in the Transfiguration classroom and waited for the other students to arrive. Lily had insisted on getting there early that they could get good seats, and the others had agreed. The other first years trickled in slowly and soon the room was almost full. After looking around Marlene turned to the others and said, "hey, guys, where are Sirius, Peter, Remus, and James. Frank's here, but he's the only Gryffindor boy from our year." All the other girls expressed their curiosity, but then McGonagall entered, cutting their speculation short.

The professor had just finished attendance when the four missing boys burst into the room. "Sorry Professor, we got lost," explained James in a voice that showed that he was out of breath. Despite his innocent words Lily though it unlikely that they had really been lost. The boys had a glint in their eyes that made her think that they had been up to something.

McGonagall, however, seemed to buy it, for she merely said "very well, ten points from Gryffindor for your lateness, and make certain that you don't repeat this." She then continued the lesson, explaining how they would change beetles into buttons.

Lily was successful on her fifth try, and was quite proud until James said loudly to Sirius, but in a voice that the others were meant to hear "I got it on the second try! Look at them" he proudly displayed is buttons for the whole class to see. The arrogance in his voice as he said this made Lily's blood boil, but she kept her mouth firmly closed and her mind on her work.

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The next class was Charms with Professor Flitwick. His class was a lot like transfiguration, except that they learned the levitation charm, _wingardium leviosa_. Lily. Who had taught herself the charm before even coming to class, did it perfectly the first time. So did Emily who had, of course learned it that morning when she and Lily had woken the others. The other girls needed three or four tries, and then they too had mastered the charm.

The boys were another story. They just couldn't get the spell right. James especially was having trouble. No matter how many times he tried, he just couldn't do the charm. 

"Miss Evans," called Professor Flitwick, "would you be so kind as to help Mr. Potter with the charm? You have mastered it quite well, and I think that you would be a great help to him."

Lily was unhappy with this arrangement to say the least, but she politely replied, "Of course Sir. I would be happy to." She walked over to James' desk and said "alright Potter, Show me how you have been doing the charm." He did so, and she saw the problem right away. "Your wand movement is off. It's like this," she showed him the proper movement and said "swish and flick. Now you do it."

He just looked at her blankly and asked "do what?" Apparently he had been watching her instead of paying attention. Lily explained it again and this time he did it and then cried in excitement "I did it! I did it!" He then turned to Sirius and said, "Did you see? I did the charm."

Lily looked at him in amusement and said "Good job, Potter. Just try not to lose concentration next time. It makes the feather fall." She then retuned to her seat.

James looked down, and sure enough his feather had fallen. HE then turned to the other Marauders and Frank and said, "Did you hear that? She said I did a good job!" He was grinning like a maniac, and the other boys rolled their eyes. "I think she likes me!" added James happily. The other boys looked at each other behind his back, their eyes clearly saying that James was off his rocker.

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Author's Note: thanks for reading. I hope that you enjoyed it. If you did, review and tell me why. If you didn't, review and tell me why not. Thanks for reading.

-Emu


	5. Shut Up, Potter

Disclaimer: Not mine. It belongs to the great JKR.

Shut Up, Potter

After an uneventful lunch period in which the girls discussed what they liked about the classes so far, and the boys (mostly James and Sirius) boasted to each other about how great they were at classes, the first years went to their first Potions class.

As the girls left the hall they speculated about what they would be doing in class.

"My dad said that we probably won't be doing too much practical stuff in potions today. That will probably start next week, and today we'll just be learning about the theory," said Alice.

"That's really too bad! I can't wait to start brewing potions, it seems so interesting from what I've read," said Lily in a slightly disappointed tone. "Of course I don't know that much about it, since I only recently learned that it existed. Still, you know, we have something similar in the muggle world. It's called chemistry. Of course, it's not just mixing things there. They study the characteristics and properties of different substances. It always fascinated me! I think that I'll really like potions."

"Wow Lily, you know a lot about this stuff already! I bet you're a potions whiz," cried Emma admiringly.

When the other girls looked like they were about to keep walking past the proper classroom because they were so engrossed in their conversation Marlene tapped them on their shoulders and exclaimed, laughing, "we're here, you know. You can stop walking if you want. On the other hand, if you really felt like it, you could just keep walking forever. I think that I'll go into the class if it's all the same to you," then she giggled again.

The girls entered the classroom to find a man who had a blond moustache and straw-like hair. He was rather fat and looked nice. When they entered he was looking at something on his desk. As they sat down in the front of the room the man looked up and said "why hello! I am professor Slughorn, teacher of potions at Hogwarts and head of Slytherin house. Why don't you introduce yourselves to me? I can't wait to get to know you."

The girls looked at him, rather surprised, as none of the other teachers had talked to them like this. They went around introducing themselves, and occasionally the professor would comment, saying that he had known their parents, or asking were they related to so-and-so. By the time they had gone around more students had arrived, and Slughorn's attention was transferred to them.

The girls looked at each other. Then Emily voiced the question in all of their minds "did it seem like he was very interested in our families? I mean it's great that he knew my mum, but it is me he's teaching, not her!"

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Still, maybe he just wanted to connect with us by talking about people we both know," Alice thoughtfully answered.

Then there was no more time for speculation, because the last students (the boys, of course) had arrived and Slughorn was asking them to sit down.

After the professor had explained what potions were and what they would be learning, the students were asked a few questions from their textbooks. Lily knew all the answers and the boy who had taunted her on the train; Severus Snape knew almost all of them. By the time he was done asking the questions Slughorn was beaming at Lily.

Then he announced "I have a special treat for you." At this point he paused for effect. If he wanted to excite the first years he succeeded, for a murmur of curiosity ran through the class. He continued, saying, "though I usually don't start practical lessons until at least the second lesson, today you will be making a potion called blister be-gone. You will find it on page seventeen of your textbooks" he explained. "You may begin."

As soon as these words left his mouth the class started to chatter in excitement, as they got out the materials that they would need for the potion.

"Wow. I can't believe he's letting us try this!" exclaimed Lily in excitement. She and her friends immediately got to work.

The sounds coming from the back of the room were less joyous. "Why do we have to make a potion if he doesn't usually let the first years do it in their first lessons? He could just talk all lesson, and let us ignore him, but no. We are lucky enough to do work!" Sirius complained in an irritated tone of voice.

"No kidding mate, it just isn't fair," agreed James.

James and Sirius weren't the only ones who appeared less than happy with this turn of events. In fact, the only people who seemed truly happy about making a potion were Lily and Severus. They were already several steps ahead of the others.

Half an hour later the room was much warmer from the fires under the cauldrons and the air was filled with steam from the cauldrons of the first years.

Slughorn was walking around looking at the blister potions, some of which seemed all right and some of which had clearly gone wrong. The Marauders' potions were among the second group. The potion was supposed to be the consistency of pulpy orange juice. Remus' was close but was a little watery. Peter's was spewing black smoke and you couldn't see the actual liquid because of it. Sirius' and James' were, however, probably the worst. James' looked like purple water. The potion was supposed to be yellow. Sirius' potion was yellow. Sort of. It was greener than the sunny color the book described, but it was close. Then there was the consistency. It was like Jell-O. It also smelled awful, while the book said it should be refreshing.

On the other hand the girls' potions were fairly good. They might not have been exactly the right shade, or consistency, but they were all quite close. Professor Slughorn told them that the potions were "good for the first time."

Then there was Lily's potion. It was perfect. When Slughorn saw it he exclaimed "Miss Evans! This is excellent." Then he peered at her and asked if she was related to some Evans who was famous in the wizarding world. 

"I don't think so, Sir. You see I'm a muggleborn," said Lily in a slightly apologetic tone.

"All the more amazing!" cried Slughorn in excitement. "Then it must just be an inborn talent." He then dismissed the class, still congratulating Lily on her potion. He ignored Severus Snape's potion, despite the fact that it was nearly as good as Lily's.

The students left for a much less interesting Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

Professor Skively, the defense teacher, explained that they would be learning about what there was to defend themselves from. They would also learn about devices that could be used to protect against the dark arts.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Sooner than She would have believed was possible Lily's first day of classes was over. She and her friends were heading to dinner, and then their dorms. The girls arrived in the great hall and sat down.

Just as they were almost done eating two things happened. One was that the Slytherins started to dance. The other was that James and his friends started laughing. Looking over at the Slytherin table where the students appeared to be performing Swan Lake, and then at the boys she was sure she knew whom the culprits were.

A moment later her suspicions were confirmed as James Potter stood on the Gryffindor table and shouted "My friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and I, James Potter would like to announce the formation lf the Marauders. We are a group of Gryffindor first years dedicated to pranking people, especially the Slytherins. WE are also exceedingly handsome and smart"

Lily was boiling mad when she heard the last sentence she snapped. Lily stood up and marched over to where James was standing on the table. She looked up at him and roared "Potter you had better remove whatever spell you used and get off of that table. NOW"

James was staring at her, thinking how pretty she was when she was angry, and feeling a little bit pleased that he had gotten her to look at him. Suddenly, he had an idea. "I'll take the spell off and get down from the table if you will go out with me."

Lily looked at him for a moment then stepped up onto the table saying, "excuse me" to a boy she bumped into. Then she walked up to James, all of this happening in about twenty seconds. She took a step towards him then she slapped him. "Shut up, Potter. I will not go out with you and you will remove the spell." Seeing that he had not yet complied with her orders she added "now, Potter."

As soon as she saw that he had done as she had told him she walked out of the hall telling Alice, Marlene and the twins, "I'm not hungry anymore. See you later."

Within a few moments the other girls followed her, saying that they too had lost their appetites.

Author's Note: James is so stupid. I just wanted to share that this is my longest chapter yet. I hope you liked it. I would like to thank the nice people who have reviewed or put my story in their favorites or on their alerts.


	6. We Survived

Disclaimer: if you recognize it, then it isn't mine.

We Survived

Over the course of the week the first years began to get used to the rhythm of life at Hogwarts. Still when Friday night finally arrived they were relieved. 

"Wow, we survived the first week!" said Marlene on their way up the dorm after dinner Friday night.

The girls walked up the stairs to their dorm in companionable silence. When they reached the room they all plopped down on their beds. To their surprise they found that they weren't ready to fall asleep just yet.

"Hey, guys, is anyone tired, because I'm not. I thought that I'd be exhausted, but I feel wide awake," announced Emily. There was a general murmur of agreement and she continued, "since that is the case I have a proposal. Let's have a sort of girls' night. We can talk about the week, the people, and stuff."

"That is a wonderful idea" Lily exclaimed in excitement. "We definitely need a release. I have a suggestion, though. Lets all get into our pajamas. That way it'll seem like a slumber party. I guess it really is a slumber party, even though we do sleep together all the time we usually don't talk."

The other girls were getting into the idea too. There were lots of suggestions about what they could do.

"We could do each other's hair," suggested Alice.

"I have some nail polish that my mom insisted I had to bring so we could do each other's nails too" offered Marlene.

"Ok" said Emma, taking charge of the situation. "Everyone has to go get ready, then we can start. I suggest talking while we do the other stuff. Lets do nails first."

As soon as she finished speaking the girls got to work, getting nail polish, hair brushes, pony holder, and other things of that sort. They all got into their nightclothes and then piled onto Emma's bed so that they could do each other's nails.

"You know what?" said Lily "this bed isn't big enough. Why don't we put some blankets on the floor and sit on them."

Once they were all situated Marlene said, "Hi girls welcome to our chat session. Who wants there nails done first?"

Everyone wanted to be first so in the end it was decided that they would draw names from a hat and that they would go one at a time so that the others could be 'fashion consultants'. Then to make everyone happy, they decided that hair would go in the opposite order so as to be fair.

Lily was first and as the person who was being done at the moment, she got to choose the subject that they would talk about. "The topic is James Potter, the stupidest, most annoying, most bigheaded, self centered, arrogant prat in the first year."

"So, Lily you really like James don't you?" asked Marlene grinning as she selected Lily's nail polish.

"Oh yes, she really does" said Emily nodding solemnly.

"And she just loves the way he asks her out at least once a day" agreed Emma, barely containing her giggles.

Alice finished off saying, "his timing is always so perfect, too!"

At that the girls could no longer hold their laughter in. They were rolling around on the floor laughing.

Then Lily said, "he doesn't appear to get that if I say no at ten o'clock in Herbology I won't have changed my mind by the time I reach History of magic half an hour later! That's the other thing. He never pays attention in class. He just talks to his friends."

"I know what you mean! All of the so-called Marauders are so unbelievably annoying! They think that they are so great," agreed Alice.

Emma added "they don't even care that they got detention on the very first day! It's like they think that it doesn't matter."

"No, they do care" Emily said disagreeing with her twin "they're proud of it!" This was true, for the boys had indeed been boasting about how quickly they ad received their first detention.

"What I don't get is why he keeps asking Lily to go out with him. She obviously doesn't want to, and even if she did what would they do? I mean, come on, we are eleven!" said Alice in confusion.

"Well," replied Marlene slowly, "he could kiss her." Remembering that he had tried to do just that at breakfast that morning she added, "without getting hit like earlier." 

"Marlene!" shrieked Lily, "if you think I would ever, in a million years kiss Potter you are insane. Totally, completely, utterly, and entirely insane!"

"And Black is almost as bad! He seems to think that he owns the earth. He is just so proud of getting into Gryffindor. It is of course very important to tell us how great he is at least ten times a day," Marlene complained.

"No, not ten times a day, ten times a minute!" corrected Emma.

Then Emily interjected quietly "I don't want to stop this discussion, or anything, but I think it's time to start on the hair, and I'd like to suggest that we do stuff that won't get too messed up while we sleep, so that we can show off haw great we look tomorrow."

The girls switched to hair mode and while Alice's hair was being done they returned to the topic of the Marauders.

Marlene announced, "I think Peter is stupid. I mean, why else would he follow Potter, Black, and Lupin around?"

"No, that isn't really fair. Remus isn't nearly as bad as the other three. He's better at paying attention in class for example" argued Emily. "He also isn't as obsessed with himself as Potter and Black."

"No, I suppose he isn't," agreed Lily.

The girls continued their discussion late into the night and by the time they had exhausted the subject they were ready for sleep.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The boys were excited as they walked up to their dorm. They were going to continue planning their first big prank that night. The Marauders had decided to let Frank join them in this prank because they liked him.

"Wow, we are still alive after our first week," Sirius announced.

James replied with the arrogance that Lily hated "there was never any doubt, was there? I mean it isn't like the schoolwork or the teachers were going to hurt us. And we didn't just survive! We did much better, after all we've already had our first detention!"

"James, I think that there was a lot of doubt about your survival. In fact I'm rather surprised that Evans hasn't killed you yet," Remus told James, laughing. "Why do you keep asking her out?

James responded quickly, explaining, "Because she's perfect. She is more beautiful than a flower, her eyes are greener than a-"

Frank cut him off saying "Remus what were you thinking? We don't want to get him on the subject of Lily! He talks about her enough already. I fact, I think we could all stand to hear less about Lily. Definitely not more."

"Uh, guys," said Peter "we were going to talk about the prank you know."

"Right," said James snapping out of his daydream of Lily and him kissing by the lake "we still need to finalize it. Do we like the plan?"

"Yes we already decided that we liked the plan," stated Sirius in annoyance. "The real questions are who and how. Suggestions for who"

To their surprise, because he wasn't terribly interested in pranks, Frank was the first to answer. He said "Snivellus."

"That's perfect, but how? If it's going to be tomorrow then we'll have to set it up tonight. How are we going to get to the Slytherin common room?"

James pulled out a cloak and said "with this. It's an invisibility cloak. My dad gave it to me."

"Wow," breathed Sirius "think of the pranks we can do with that."

"That's all very well," said Remus "but in case you haven't noticed you need a password to get into the common rooms. We don't know the Slytherin password so we can't do the prank on a slytherin. The cloak will still be useful some other time though. Think of the possibilities within Gryffindor. We could do seventh years to show them that we can get them even though we are younger. We could even do someone from the girls' dorms without having to go up there, because we can do the spells from the common room.

"Let's go do this then! We can do the seventh years. Just wait until they wake up tomorrow morning! They won't know what happened," Sirius announced in excitement. "Who wants to come set up?"

"I do," said all the other boys at the same time.

"Look, we can all go," said Remus "but let's do the girls instead." As he finished his sentence a smile grew on the faces of all the boys.

"Yeah, that'll show them that even though they're best at most of the subjects we're still better at pranking!" James said delightedly. "Let's go."

The boys snuck down the stairs and entered the common room. They stood at the foot of the stairs to the girls' dorms, and said the incantation, while pointing their wands towards the girls dorm (a second year girl who thought James was cute had told him where in the girls section Lily lived, and they knew that the other girls would share her dorm), and thinking of the girl they wanted to target.

As soon as they had done the spell the boys retraced the steps to their dorm and fell onto their beds, laughing.

"I can't wait to see their faces tomorrow morning! We're going to have to get up early tomorrow," said Sirius gleefully.

"I know," agreed Peter who had been very quiet up to this point.

Remus, always practical said, "if we're getting up early in the morning, then we should go to bed."

Twenty minutes later they were all in bed, dreaming of the girls' faces in the morning.

Author's note: So, did you like it? I'm sorry that the title is so pathetic. I was wondering if you could all do a very wonderful thing. Would you pretty please review my story? It would make Emu so happy!

Emu


	7. The Prank

Disclaimer: Last I checked the wonderful JKR hadn't given me Harry Potter and I certainly don't have enough money to buy it, so…

The Prank

The next morning (the one after the planning night) Remus was up first as usual. What was unusual was that when he woke the other boys _none _of them protested. Not one. Even though it was a Saturday. They simply got up and dressed themselves, then walked down to the common room where they wordlessly seated themselves on five of the chairs. Without speaking they all knew what they were waiting for, and couldn't wait for it to happen.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Lily and Emily woke up at almost the exact same time. As they got out of bed they looked at each other. Then they screamed. They looked at the other girls, who had been woken by the noise.

When they saw what had happened they all screamed too echoing Lily and Emily.

All the girls' hair and skin had changed color. The styles that they had worked so hard on the night before were gone. The boys couldn't have picked a worse (or better, depending how you looked at it) night for their prank. 

Lily's hair was neon orange and her skin was purple. Marlene's skin was blue and her hair a lovely shade of red, Alice's hair was green and her skin was as yellow as the sun. The twins were opposites, Emma's hair was bright red, and not a hair red, but the kind of red that the scarlet crayon is, and her skin was glow-in-the-dark green. Her sister was the opposite with green hair and red skin. They all looked as if they would glow in the dark.

The girls were all trying to think of who could have done it, and then Lily said, "It was those stupid Marauders. Probably Frank too since there are five of us. Who wants to help me kill them?"

All the others agreed that the boys were the culprits and in five minutes they were dressed and ready to go see the boys. Or murder them.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Down in the common room the boys didn't have long to wait. About ten minutes after they arrived a scream came echoing down the girls' staircase. A few seconds later they heard another one, this time louder as though there were more voices. Upon hearing this the boys grinned at each other. When the girls came down soon after the screams they were still congratulating each other and laughing at their cleverness. It had not occurred to them that the girls would retaliate. When they looked up and saw the girls they laughed even harder. Ten seconds later they had stopped laughing.

The girls had each marched up to a boy and hit him with all their might. Emily hit Remus, Emma got Sirius, Marlene slapped Peter, Alice got Frank and Lily, of course took James.

The boys were more than surprised. They were absolutely shocked. So far no one had tried to get them back for any of the minor pranks they had pulled. For a moment they simply stood where they were, stunned. Then they began laughing again, for the girls looked ridiculous, standing there with furious expressions on their colorful faces.

This turned out to be a mistake. The girls began screaming at the boys. In the space of a few seconds there were five arguments going on at once in the common room. The noise woke the other Gryffindors who came down to see what was happening. The discussions between the first years were all rather similar, though the one between Lily and James was probably the most heated.

Lily screamed at James "WHAT DID YOU DO? PUT ME BACK HOW I WAS RIGHT NOW OR YOU WILL REGRET IT."

"Well, Lily, you see, it's a very useful little spell we found," James was about to continue when Lily cut Him off.

"I DO NOT CARE HOW 'USFUL' YOU THINK IT IS. GET RID OF IT."

"Well, you know what, I really would love to, but there is no counterspell. You just have to wait it out." He smiled charmingly at her and added, "You know, you really look nice like this too."

Lily just glared at him and asked in a low, deadly voice, "Potter, how long does the spell last?"

James answered quickly, due to the fact that Lily's wand was in his face. "The spell lasts for 48 hours. Then you go back to normal." He said it rather fast as though he hoped that she'd leave after he told her.

"FORTY EIGHT HOURS! JAMES POTTER I AM GOING TO MURDER YOU!"

At this point McGonagall entered the common room. Apparently some bystander had gotten her to come and try to calm the first years. The timing of her entrance was awful, for all of the girls had just found out the length of the enchantment, and were in the process of threatening the boys.

"Miss Evans, Miss Chambers, Miss Chambers, Miss McKinnon, and Miss Davies! What are you doing to the boys?" cried the professor in alarm.

"Please, Professor, we're yelling at them because they did this to us last night," she gestured at her face and hair as she said this.

"McGonagall's lips pressed into a thin line and she addressed the boys saying, "is this true?" she he received nods from the boys and said "very well. Come with me. We are going to my office."

With that she led the boys out of the room, leaving the whole of Gryffindor house standing in their pajamas and looking at the girls.

"Guys, lets go back to our room said Alice after a moment, and the girls treaded up the stairs leaving the others below to gossip about the fight. As the girls reached their room Lily said, "I can't believe them! Why would they do that to us? What did we do to them?"

"Well" responded Emily thoughtfully, "we are doing better in classes than they are. And we're girls. For some strange reason they don't really like us. It's a boy thing."

"What do you mean they don't like us?" responded her twin. "James has been stalking Lily for the past week, if you didn't notice."

Marlene was the one to answer her. "Yes, he does have a crush on her, but he's young. In fact it may not have occurred to them how angry we would be. Did you see how surprised they were when we attacked them?"

"You know what we should do?" asked Lily. "We should get them back."

"No," said Alice firmly. "That just shows that we are willing to stoop to their level. I vote that we refuse to talk to them. No matter what. Or look at them."

"That's a wonderful idea. James especially will go nuts if Lily won't even acknowledge his existence," cried Emily in excitement.

"Ok then, it is agreed. Let operation ignore boys begin" announce Alice grinning.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

McGonagall led the boys through the halls to her office. When they arrived she sat down behind her desk and conjured up five chairs. She then gestured for them to sit down.

"Boys why did you put this spell on the girls?" she asked.

"We did it because we wanted to prank someone and they seemed like a good choice" answered James cheerily.

"I see. You will all serve one week of detentions starting tomorrow night. You will learn tat what you have done is wrong. You will come here at 7:00 tomorrow. You may leave," said the professor disapprovingly.

The boys left her office and went off to the Great Hall to eat their breakfast, hoping to be done before the girls showed up. As they walked Sirius asked them "so, was it worth it?"

"Of course it was" cried James as though the suggestion that they might be dissatisfied was insulting.

The other boys agreed, but Remus pointed out, "I don't think they're too happy with us, though. Lily looked ready to kill, as did the others. Somehow, I get the feeling that the detention is the light part of our punishment."

Author's Note: Well there's the prank. I am sorry to say tat although I have been out of school for the week it starts up again on Monday, so I'll only be updating once or twice a week. Sorry. Now if you want the next chapters to be good, you should review. Pretty please?


	8. What Did I Do?

Disclaimer: as far as I know I don't own Harry Potter, but then again no one ever tells me anything.

What Did I Do?

"Lily you look lovely today. How are you?" asked James.

Lily ignored James. She and her friends continued on to their next class, History of Magic.

James continued to follow them ignoring the protests of the other Marauders as he left them behind. "Lily do you like History of Magic? Personally my favorite classes are DADA and Transfiguration. You like Charms, don't you? I'm not very good at them. I can never get them quite right."

Lily ignored James. They had reached the classroom and the girls took seats near the front of the class- as far from the Marauder's normal seats as possible.

"Lily, I hope you don't mind if I sit right here behind you. Maybe we could continue our conversation." James sat right behind Lily in a perfect spot for passing notes to her or whispering in her ear. "So how have you been recently? You've been pretty quiet the past few days. Are you alright?"

Lily ignored James. She looked through her bag, frowned, then turned to Alice who was sitting beside her and asked, "do you have some spare parchment? I can't find mine and I need it for taking notes. I must have left mine in the dorm."

"I have some parchment you can borrow, Lily," said James hopefully, offering her the parchment.

"Yeah I have some, here. If you need more just ask me" said Alice cheerfully.

Lily ignored James' offer and thanked Alice.

James' hand dropped back to his side and he tried once more to talk to Lily. "So are you enjoying Hogwarts? What are your favorite parts about it compared to home? I like living with my friends, the food, and you."

Lily ignored James. She thought to herself, '_I notice that he doesn't mention classes.'_ Despite this thought she retained her outer shell of impassiveness.

James cried out in frustration "Lily, why won't you talk to me? For goodness' sake you won't even_ look_ at me! What did I do?"

It had been five days since the prank and Lily and the other girls still refused to acknowledge the boys existence except when they had to help them in classes. Even then they would only talk about the subject they were working on. They refused to say so much as hello. It was driving James to the edge of insanity (tough as Lily pointed out in the girls' dorm there was some question as to whether He hadn't leapt over it years before they had even met him.

James was taking it the hardest, though Remus and Frank were unhappy too. Peter didn't care much and Sirius said that it was much nicer this way. In his opinion girls were stupid and obnoxious. He told James as much in an attempt to console him and James said "Sirius, shut up. Lily won't even admit that I exist. There is nothing good about it. Nothing."

Through out the entire History of Magic class James continued his attempts to get Lily to notice his existence.

Lily ignored James.

Because this was their last class of the day the class went of to dinner afterwards. This was always interesting to watch, as James hadn't given up on asking Lily to go out with him. He did it every night during dinner and Lily always continued talking to her friends as though nothing was happening. 

This night was no different from the others. James was sitting at the opposite end of thr table from her and at about the time that the dessert appeared he shouted up the table "hey, Evans, wanna go out with me?"

Lily ignored James. "So, have you done the astronomy homework yet? I was tinking of working on mine tonight. And maybe the DADA too," she said to her friends continuing the conversation that they had been having. She appeared unaffected by James' question, but if you knew her well you could see that her eyes had a dangerous glint in them.

Over at the other end of the table James had run out of patience. "Fine" he announced to the table at large, "if Evans won't admit I exist I'm going to go speak with Snivellus."

"Ooh" cried Sirius excitedly, "can I come?"

James responded saying "sure, the three of you can all come. The Marauders have a meeting with Snivellus right about now."

The whole school paid attention as the four boys walked over to the greasy-haired boy at the Slytherin table. Meetings between the Marauders and Snape were almost as much fun as watching Evans scream at James. If they were lucky they would get to see both. James drawled "hey Snivelly. How are you today? Did you forget to wash your hair again?"

"Just leave me alone Potter. I am not bothering you so don't bother me," said Snape trying to get rid of James without a fight.

"Oh but I think you need help washing your hair, Snivellus. Let me help you." With that he picked up a pitcher of ice water from the table (A/N does anyone know if Hogwarts actually had these?) and dumped it over Severus' head.

"Didn't help that much, James. I suggest that dropping him in the lake might help a bit." The boys looked at each other for a moment as if wondering if they dared, then began to move towards Severus as thought o pick him up.

This was too much for Lily who had been watching from her seat at the Gryffindor table. She stood and ran to the Marauders and said "Potter, leave Snape alone. He hasn't done anything to you."

Her words didn't seem to register with James. He said "you're talking to me. Does that mean you want to go out with me?"

"I, Lily Evans will never go out with you, James Potter, in a million years. If you don't leave Snape alone" she said, turning to face the other Marauders as well, "I will personally see to it that you never speak again."

"I don't need help from mudbloods like you" spat Snape.

"I really don't care if you want the help or not Severus. What they are doing is against my principles, and I will stop it." She then turned back to James and said "I am going back to the Gryffindor table. So are you."

With that she turned and walked back to her friends leaving James behind to say dazedly "she talked to me again." He smiled, happy that Lily had looked at him.

Lily walked back to her friends and apologized, saying, "sorry guys. I couldn't just watch them torture him, even if Snape is a slytherin. Should we end the punishment?"

"No. we continue until the end of the week, as planned," responded Alice. "It is just too funny to pass up the chance to see the boys trying to get our attention, let's see if we can get Remus and Frank to crack too. They were the most annoyed, not counting James. It's almost like they like us."

"I don't think that they do. Well, maybe Frank, but Remus is kind of our friend and I would assume that he misses us," Emily disagreed.

"Who knows" sighed Marlene, "boys are mysterious. I think that they still don't Know what they did wrong."

Authors note: sorry this one is so short. And pathetic. I don't know if I like it, but I sort of needed to wrap up the prank. The next chapter might skip a bunch of time, because at the rate I'm going I'll be 20 before I finish this. So, now if you want to encourage me to write this week even though I have school again, you should review! If you wanted to you could give me ideas for a Halloween prank.


	9. Planning

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

Author's note: This is going to be a day before Halloween, because if tell you about every time that the Marauders pranked the girls, or that Lily got mad at James you will all die of boredom. Also, I have decided that this story is only going to go to the end of October, because I'm not ready to do a story that is really long.

Planning

"So, have you guys got any ideas yet?" asked Peter as the boys sat down to lunch in the Great Hall.

They were going to eat and then visit Hagrid, who the boys had befriended on the boat ride from the train to the castle. The ideas that Peter had mentioned were for a Halloween prank. The Marauders planned to make full use of the trick part of trick-or-treat. Over the past two months they had become known as pranksters who could get the better of everyone in the school, including other first years, older students, and even the professors.

Remus shook his head, but Sirius and James spoke simultaneously, saying, "Yes!"

Then they paused, causing Remus to say, "Well? What are they?"

James immediately launched into a monologue about a complex plan involving many things, including house elves in costume, dancing food, and moving sheets. "Stop!" cried Remus in alarm, "Are you crazy? That is the most insanely complicated plan I've ever heard, and it doesn't even work properly."

"Remus is right, James," agreed Sirius, "my ideas are much better. We should blow up the pumpkins."

"No, we shouldn't" replied Remus forcefully. "However, that does give me an idea. We should…" and he continued on, explaining a plan which the others all agreed was brilliant.

Then they headed down to Hagrid's house.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

"Wow," exclaimed Lily, "I can't believe that it's already the end of October! It seems like we just got here."

The girls were sitting in their dorm talking about the fact that Halloween was the next day. They were sitting on their own beds, at various points in their homework. Lily was the only one to have finished it, though Emily was almost done. It was Saturday, and the girls wanted to finish so they would be free on Halloween.

"Speak for yourself," groaned Alice, pulling her transfiguration assignment towards her. She hadn't finished it yet, and she was having a hard time with it. "I personally feel like I've been doing schoolwork for years!"

"Oh, come on Alice," cried Emily, who was much wore comfortable talking with her friends now than she had been at the beginning of term. "It isn't that bad. If you didn't spend so much time complaining, and talking then you wouldn't have so much to do now. The same is true for the rest of you too," she said pointedly, looking at her sister especially.

It was Emma who responded now "Yeah, but we also got to do more talking before." She was referring to Thursday night when she, Marlene, and Alice had stayed up for hours talking about many things, including Hufflepuff second year Mark Montgomery. Lily and Emily had chosen instead to write their potions essay and their transfiguration paper. Then she sighed as her sister put away her last assignment and stretched out on her bed.

The girls continued working in silence, then Lily turned to Emily, and said, "What do wizards do on Halloween? Do you go trick-or-treating? I can't wait for tomorrow. It's going to be my first holiday in the wizarding world."

"Well," replied Emily, "We only do trick-or-treating when we're little kids, when we start school we usually stop. After all, it would be sort of hard to do at boarding school. We also usually have parties, with pumpkins and bats, and decorations like that. I would guess that Hogwarts does a party, but I'm not really sure."

"That's really neat!" cried Lily, getting excited. "I've never been to a Halloween party before. It will be so wonderful." At this point she broke off, hugging herself in excitement, and grinning like a maniac.

"Wow, Lily, you really are excited aren't you?" asked Marlene, as she finished her work. She was faster than Alice and Emma, because she didn't stop to talk every few minutes. "I have to agree with you though. Tomorrow will be a night to remember. It's sort of seems like an initiation, if you know what I mean. It will feel like if we get through our first holiday we really belong at Hogwarts."

"Exactly, you said it perfectly," said Lily, her smile entering her voice. "Are there any other Halloween wizarding traditions I should know about?"

"Well, I'm not sure. There are things like the kinds of food we eat, but that's really more specific to individual families," replied Emma. "To be honest, families usually like to surprise their kids, at least as far as what happens at Hogwarts, so they don't tell us _anything_. It can be really annoying, because they'll talk about stuff that they did there, but won't explain it properly."

"Yes," agreed Alice, "my mum did it to me for ages. It's like you get close to when you're going to go to Hogwarts, and they half want to tell you things about their schooling, and halfway don't! I was just about ready to scream. She kept talking about the sorting, but not how it happened and stuff like that. I didn't know about the hat until I got here."

"Whatever happens, it's sure to be spectacular. I can't wait," said Marlene cheerfully.

After a while Lily asked, "Should we dress up?"

"Well, I don't think we should get too fancy, but I might wear some slightly nicer robes," answered Emily thoughtfully. "I hadn't really thought about it."

"Well," said Emily, "we can decide what we are going to wear tomorrow morning."

Lily looked at them a worried expression on her face. Then she asked, "What should I do? I only have plain school robes."

Marlene laughed slightly, and said, "we can alter them using magic. It will be perfect!"

"Can we do that?" Lily's eyes were wide; clearly she had never thought of using magic to mend or alter clothing. "Wait, if we can alter stuff with magic, does that mean that we can mend rips and stuff like that too?"

Emma was the first to answer. "Of course it does! I hadn't realized that you didn't know that! We keep forgetting that you don't already know this stuff because we grew up with it. Is there something you want to fix? For just mending a rip you use _reparo_."

Lily got out one of her robes and tried it, grinning delightedly when it worked perfectly. "That is so amazing. Sometimes I still can't quite believe that I am a witch and can do magic. It's even strange that magic of any sort is real!"

"It's hard for me to imagine that," sad Emily, her voice slightly wistful. "It seems like it would be really nice to be amazed by magic. I grew up with it, so it just seems really commonplace to me."

Suddenly Emily burst out, announcing, "We need to get some sleep. Tomorrow's a big day. I'm really am excited, but I really don't want to be tired."

All the others agreed with her, and they started getting ready for bed.

Author's note: I'm so sorry that this took so long. I had a really hard time coming up with this chapter. It's up now, and I hope that you like it. There should be one more chapter after this one. Please review, and tell me what you think. I promise to respond to all signed reviews.


	10. Halloween

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, then it isn't mine.

Halloween

"Wow," breathed Lily as she entered the great hall, "this is absolutely amazing."

The great hall had been decorated for Halloween, and it would have been hard for anyone, even a pureblood, to say that it was not spectacular. For Lily, who had never seen wizarding decorations before, it was even more amazing. There were small pumpkins above the tables, some of them carved into faces, some of them left plain, loads of candles, and even a few bats flapping around, up near the very top. The most noticeable decorations were the giant pumpkins floating near the enchanted ceiling.

As the girls walked in and sat down they were chatting excitedly.

"Wow, Emily, you really did a great job on these robes," said Lily gratefully. The changes were all small, however when you looked at the whole thing it was far more elegant than the normal uniform.

"I'm glad that you like them, they really fun to make." Emily had spent all afternoon altering everyone's robes until they met her requirements. Lily's were the most changed, but all the girls had had at least one alteration. Emily had explained that she liked sewing, and, although this was the first time that she had tried it, she found working with fabric using magic to be fascinating.

The girls seated themselves as far from the Marauders as they could, hoping that for tonight at least, they could simply enjoy themselves, without the boys getting in the way. Since the start of term it seemed that not so much as a week had gone by without the Marauders causing some sort of trouble.

A few minutes after they had gotten settled the dishes appeared. There was a huge selection of food; among other things Lily could see roast beef, several types of potatoes, sausages, vegetables, roast chicken, and Yorkshire puddings.

The whole table suddenly started to grab for food all at once. It was clear that, even by wizarding standards, this was an amazing meal.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The Marauders were perfectly happy to be sitting a bit apart from their housemates. They looked around, checking to see if they could talk safely. When they were sure that they wouldn't be overheard they began to go over their plans.

"Okay," said Remus, who was sort of unofficially in charge of planning, "Peter, you stay here, so that you can give the signal to the others when I wave at you. James, you go to the far end of the hall," he pointed, "and Sirius, you go to that corner. I will go near to the head table, so that I can signal Peter, who will then signal everyone to do their spells. Any questions?"

Sirius nodded, and asked, "When is it going to happen?"

"Right as dinner is being cleared away. That way we should attract the most attention."

"We'll need to move fast, men," said James, in what he clearly considered to be a very mature voice. The others clearly disagreed; they broke out laughing. After glaring at them for a moment, James could no longer contain himself, and he joined them, all four boys rolling around on the benches.

When they had finally gotten themselves under control they returned to their food, then quietly slipped off one by one.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Dinner was drawing to a close, and Lily looked up happily from her plate, having eaten her fill. "I'm really surprised that the boys haven't tried anything. I thought that there was sure to be something."

"Well," replied Emma, "they were rolling all over the place laughing earlier, but that's not bad at all. At least for them."

Suddenly there was a whooshing noise above them. The girls looked up to see that a thousand bats had just popped out of the pumpkins. They flew around the hall, and then came down to land on people.

There was pandemonium. Girls (and a few boys, although they would later deny it) were screaming in terror, and other who were not afraid of the bats were also rather unhappy.

Lily looked down at her lap, seeing that a bat had knocked food all over her when she was distracted. She looked at her friends (or, more specifically at the twins, Marlene and Alice being among those who were frightened). They all seemed to pass information between them, despite the fact that they did not speak. It was obvious that they knew who had committed the crime, and they were going to go see them. And they were not planning on discussing the weather. They all walked down the table to where the Marauders had returned to their seats. As they walked they fell into step, so that by the time they reached the Marauders they were walking shoulder to shoulder. Despite the fact that they were covered in food, they managed to look very intimidating.

The three girls looked at the boys angrily, then Emily started talking, "What, on the face of this earth possessed you to do that? What on earth were you thinking? Did you guys say to each other 'hey, you know what? I'm really bored. Why don't we ruin everyone's Halloween?' What a great idea!"

"Yeah, it was brilliant!" replied Sirius cheekily. "But, you know, you should give Remus most of the credit. He came up with the idea!"

"Calm down," said Remus cheerfully. "It was just a bit of holiday fun!" It was clear that none of the boys felt the least bit guilty.

Emma looked at Remus incredulously, "Fun? It was just fun? You don't think, do you? You didn't stop to think of the mess this would make did you? Or of the fact that for people who are afraid of bats, having them attack the people might be just a little bit scary? You people are so STUPID!" Emma was angrier than anyone had seen her before, and the boys cowered away from her.

Then, appearing to believe that the yelling was over James stepped forward and looked at Lily. Then he said hopefully, "Hey, Evans, wanna go out with me? You know, you could say yes in honor of the holiday!"

Lily looked at him, a look of pure disgust on her face. Then she said, "You really want my answer? Here it is. I'll use little words, and make it simple, so that even you can understand. Hey, Potter, wanna die?"

Author's note: I finished it. I'm sorry that it took so long, but it is finally done. Please review, and tell me if you liked it or not. I promise to respond to all reviews.


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